[Assam] Losing the Language - Irish to English

[kamal deka]

 Sarangapani,
I do agree with you.A bunch of languages are fading away in bilingual
cultures as indigenous tongues are overwhelmed by the dominant language at
school,in the market place and on TV.United Nations estimates half of the
world's 7000 languages will disappear in less than a century.In fact,one
falls out of use every two weeks.
Aging populations,economic pressure,youth apathy and lack of written form
are only some of the conditions leading to the endangerment of a
language.You see,half of the world's people now use one of just 8 languages:
Chinese,English,Hindi,Spanish,Russian,Arabic,Portuguese and French.
The Assamese language has already been put to sleep in American context.
By the way,the Irish have succeeded in preserving their native Gaelic to the
point where it is now spoken by 13% of the population of the Republic of
Ireland.
KJD





On 3/2/08, Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Barua,
>
> >Interesting. Compared to that Assamese are fortunate that I don't think
> >there is any concern for losing the Assamese language although many
> >people
> are worried for nothing.
>
> That itself is an interesting statement.
> The problem is comparing Gaelic (in this case) and the Irish being
> non-challant of their language to the concerns of the Assamese.
> Why do you think some Assamese are worried for nothing?
>
> The Irish have had problems with their religious denomiations
> (Catholoc-Protestant, Northern Ireland/IRA etc, etc) - compared to that
> the
> Assamese have had very *few problems* with regards to religions.
> Both Assamese Hindus and Muslims have gotten along very well for a very
> long
> time.
>
> The Assamese are and should be rightly concerned with the changing
> landscape
> whereby illegal Bangladeshis are coming in hordes, and more *importantly
> speak a different language*.
>
> >From all practical indications it does seem that the Assamese language
> will
> face huge challenges, to say the least. It is very simple, if only a small
> minority speak a language, it will cease to exist
>
> I think it is a major problem facing Assam and I am not sure if any
> Assamese
> can or should be magnanimous as to not be worried about losing the
> language.
>
> --Ram
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 3/2/08, Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Umesh:
> > Interesting. Compared to that Assamese are fortunate that I don't think
> > there is any concern for losing the Assamese language although many
> people
> > are worried for nothing.
> > BTW is there some predictions which are the languages that will be lost
> > during next 50 or 100 years.?
> > Rajenda
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "umesh sharma" <jaipurschool at yahoo.com>
> > To: <assam at assamnet.org>
> > Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 11:23 PM
> > Subject: [Assam] Losing the Language - Irish to English
> >
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I just met an Irish singer from Dublin and was surprised to learn that
> > he
> > > couldn't speak Irish (Gaelic) since as he said " In Ireland it is
> easier
> > > to find Chinese speaking persons than Irish/Gaelic speaking people."
> > This
> > > is despite that fact that Irish is compulsory is schools - for 16
> years
> > of
> > > schooling.
> > >
> > > He told me that Scotland has its own version called Scot-Gaelic but it
> > too
> > > is losing ground to English  - only 50,000 speakers though 5 million
> > > Scots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language
> > >
> > > Surprisingly he said there is no revolt or bad feeling that Irish has
> > been
> > > taken over by English - depsite IRA violence in Northen Ireland (and
> > rest
> > > of UK) till recent times
> > >
> > > Umesh
> > >
> > > PS:: We are delighted that Luke Slott will be back at Tiny Planet to
> > warm
> > > the room with his radiant spirit and music.  This time Luke will be
> > > singing some of his original songs with piano and guitar.
> > >
> > >
> > > Umesh Sharma
> > >
> > > Washington D.C.
> > >
> > > 1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
> > >
> > > Ed.M. - International Education Policy
> > > Harvard Graduate School of Education,
> > > Harvard University,
> > > Class of 2005
> > >
> > > http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
> > >
> > > http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > www.gse.harvard.edu/iep  (where the above 2 are used )
> > > http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
> > >
> > > ---------------------------------
> > > Yahoo! Answers - Get better answers from someone who knows. Tryit now.
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
> >
> >
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